Pray
by Ki-nee-chan
Summary: The world works in funny ways and everything is linked in a great chain of fate. There is always a plan, even if we can't see it.


"Is there…. Something I can do to help?" a woman asked.

A young man, only 22, stood in front of a coffee machine in a small town staring at the titles below his feet holding a full cup without a lid. His shoulders were hunched and his eyes were void. At the question the young man turned to face the woman. How he'd love to just cry.

The middle-aged woman stared him straight in his blue eyes with her eyebrows gathered and sincere worry in her eyes. She tentatively placed her hand on his shoulder.

It was no use; he looked back down and shook his head. It just needed out. "You know, more than a year ago now. My sister was killed by her husband leaving three children. My parents took them in. seven months ago my father passed away. A couple nights ago, I got a call from nephew. My mother's passed away now. There's no one else now… no one but those three children. Right now they're in the custody of the state. My sister wouldn't want them there but I have no real means to support them. I have no wife or girlfriend that might help. I haven't even finished my schooling. How am I supposed to help them? How am I supposed to deal?"

The woman searched for words as she rubbed the young man's shoulders. "Those children. All they will need is for you to love them and for you to be there. I can tell, you loved your sister. You loved your father. You loved your mother. You care deeply about, no, you love those children dearly too. The world is not without support. If you ask for help raising those children, your neighbors, your friends, even the government, will all help.

"You will still have a few long days and long weeks, even long months ahead of you so let me help you get a start. I'll buy that coffee for you." The woman finally released the young man's shoulder and gently took the cup of coffee from him. She placed a lid on top of it and walked to the counter and placed her empty cup beside his full one on the counter. "I'd like to buy these two cups please."

The clerk had tears in her eyes and just whispered to the woman, "No. Just, take them. Okay?"

The woman smiled and took the cup back to the young man. He was so chocked up he couldn't even whisper the words thank you for fear he might actually start crying. She placed it in his hands and rubbed his back whispering to him, "I promise. It'll hurt less in the future, it maybe a while but it will hurt less."

He left the store, slightly less hunched over then when she had entered. As she poured her own cup of coffee she clasped her hands, shut her eyes tightly and whispered, "Dear lord, please bless that child. Bless that child and those poor, poor children, lord."

Years and years passed. The one thing the woman promised had come true. It hurt less. In fact, unless someone scratched the scab directly he could go on as though he had forgotten. To hurry the process he had moved away from the small town in Johto named Mahogany town to a slightly larger city in Kanto named Pewter city.

Life between the two was vastly different. Not only did every look completely different, in Mohogany all the homes were short and made from wood. It wasn't such a small town that everyone knew everyone but close enough that a person with a regular routine might recognize all the faces along they're path. Pewter city was colder, yes, in terms of winter coming earlier, the gray, tall buildings and just the general tone of the unfamiliar people along your path. Maybe it was the best thing that you didn't have to learn the faces, you didn't have to get to know people, a person could just be themselves by themselves.

To liven up the cold city large lots had been planted with wild flowers and become play places for the younger children. the one young man had now entered the early phase of middle age and he sat on a stone in the corner of a 'flower lot' reading a book as the children played.

"Uncle Dav! Uncle Dav!" A young girl shouted running towards a middle aged man at full speed. She had a crown of flowers in her hair and a bouquet in her hand. "Lookie look!" she shouted with a big smile and pointed at her head. "The girl over there taught me how to make it!"

The child was already 12, but she was just as free as when she was four. "It's very cute Nicky."

The girl gave him her biggest smile, spreading from ear to ear, showing off all the missing teeth. Her dark brown hair, much like his only much longer, which had originally been pulled into a neat, high pony tail had started to fall out, it looked like a matted mess under the crown of daisies. She saw the world through soft blue eyes which looked just like his and large ears to match his. "My big brothers never taught me how to make flower tiaras! They always took flowers and popped their heads off!" she pouted.

Her uncle just laughed. "Can I wear your crown for a second?" he asked with a big smile.

Nicky smiled and laughed loudly before taking the crown off and handing it to her over weight uncle. He placed it on top of his head and smiled at the young girl, "Does it suit me?"

She laughed violently and started rolling on the flowers. Pounding and kicking the ground while laughing even harder.

"Is that a no?" he asked sadly.

"You look funny!"

"Alright well I'll give it back to you. It's about time to go home anyway," he took the crown off his head and handed it to the short child. "Fix your hair before you put it back on though. Your aunt will kill me if you show up with hair like that."

"Awwww, Okay," she pulled out the hair tie and decided that was fixed up enough before she put the crown back on.

She followed her uncle though the gray brick streets. Together they entered a tall gray building and trekked up two flights of stairs before entering an apartment room. Her uncle opened the door and she bolted through. "Aunt Tam! Aunt Tam!" she yelled with a big smiled.

"Don't disturb the neighbors Nicole." A woman called gently from the kitchen. The woman slowly wobbled around the corner wiping her hands on and apron place over her very pregnant stomach.

"I brought flowers for the baby!" Nicky smiled holding the bouquet in the air.

"And it looks like you got a flower crown. It's cute but your hair's a mess," she sighed as the short 12 year old came up and hugged her stomach. "Dinner's almost done. It's all your favorites Nicky."

"And corn bread?" Nicky asked looking up from her aunt's giant stomach, looking straight at her brown eyes and short blond hair.

"Corn bread? Since when did you like corn bread?" Aunt Tam asked with a look of shock on her face.

"…No corn bread….?" Nicky asked quietly, pursing her lips and gathering her eye brows like she was about to cry.

"Of course there's corn bread," Tam laughed. "Now was up and get ready for dinner."

Dav leaned and gently kissed his wife on her cheek, she just smiled and then moved to place the flowers in a small glass vase, perfect decoration for the middle of the table. Once Nicky had washed her hands she ran around the corner and sat at the table and looked at all the great food. Corn bread, beef broccoli, a strange white soup with noodles, and a pitcher of blue koolaid, truly all her favorites.

The three dug in and Tam laughed slightly, "I think my mother would have a heart attack right about now if she saw corn bread with Chinese food."

"Your mother would have a heart attack if she knew what in the world was 'chicken glop'."

"I love chicken glop!" Nicky laughed as she grabbed the ladle and pour the mysterious white substance into a bowl.

"So Nicky are you all packed and ready for tomorrow?" Dav placed his elbow on the table and looked at the young girl.

"Yep! Everything's packed and I get to stop by Brocks gym first thing in the morning and he'll give me a Pokémon! I just hope it's something other than a Geodude," She smiled.

"Why did you suddenly decide that you wanted to go be a trainer? What happened to the sweet little girl that thought she was going to grow up to be a scientist like me and work with fossils?" Tam sighed, placing her right elbow on the table and placing her chin on her fist.

"My brothers are having so much fun being trainers. They get to see and learn a lot of things that I'll never learn here in this city," Nicky said while emulating her aunt and uncle by placing both her elbows on the table and cupping her chin in both her hands looking straight at the two.

"Elbows off the table, it's rude," Tam sternly muttered. Dav quickly pulled his arms off the table

"I will once you do," Nicky smiled.

"…Oh…" Tam sighed. She hadn't even realized what her arm had been doing.

After dinner Nicky took a long shower and as she crawled into bed her uncle entered the room.

"Uncle Dav?" she asked.

"Nicky. I don't know if I've told you enough," he sat he side her bed and placed his hand on her head, "I love you. I've raised you since you were two and to me you are as much as my daughter as the little one I get too met in a month. You are always welcome here. We'll always have a spot for you at our table and a place for you to crash when you need help."

"I love you too Uncle Dav," Nicky whispered grasping his large hand with both of hers.

The following morning, before the dawn sun even cracked the horizon Nicky stood at the entrance to the route leading to the Viridian forest with a Sandshrew standing proudly beside her. Bathed in the soft purple, pre-dawn light Nicky looked at the small creature and smiled. "Are you ready little one? Our goal is to somehow get to Cinnabar so I can get an apprenticeship at the laboratory there! We'll use any means necessary to get there and get an apprenticeship! And best of all, I won't have to change any diapers!"

Nicky turned and looked at the city, in the pinking light the city almost seemed warm. She turned forwards and run into the tall grass.

A couple hours later Tam wandered her apartment, lit by the bright morning light, she glanced around Nicky's open door. "That girl…" she sighed and waddled towards her bed and shocker her husband's shoulder, "Dav… Dav… David?"

He partly opened one eye and asked groggily, "Yeah Tammy…?"

"Nicky left without saying goodbye. Her room's empty."

"Then she's just like her brothers and mother after all," he sighed and buried his head into the pillow. He sighed a couple times before he finally got out of bed and followed his morning routine. After leaving the house he started walking towards work, first things first though. Coffee.

He thought about his usually place, reality cheap and relatively good but he didn't feel like the usual for some reason. His next thought was a place not too far away from his work and decided not that place. He staged past a couple other coffee shops without an interest in either of them. He went slightly out of the way until he finally found a convince store that he had never visited before and didn't even know it existed.

As he entered the small shop he glanced around for the coffee machine and instead found a bunch of freshly brewed pots and a woman standing in front of them cradling her face in her hands, shaking as she sobbed slightly. A large cup of coffee had been poured and sat beside her on the counter growing cold as Dav approached the young woman who may have only been 22.

"Is there…. Anything I can do to help?" he asked sincerely staring at the young woman's covered face. He gently placed his hand on her shoulder.

She pulled her hands away from her face and let her tears fall as she looked right into his blue eyes through her black ones. She shook her head and placed her face back into her hands and whispered through her tears, "This is my 17th interview today," she gave a hearty sniff. "I have an interview in about an hour and I just can't seem to land a job. It's all so worthless. I have good grades, I graduated from a good school and yet I can't get a job as an instructor at any school. I wanted to teach battling but I've applied for everything I could qualify."

David gently rubbed the young woman's back, "That's not your fault honey. The economy sucks right now and jobs are tight but, right now, you look great. You're dressed sharply and that's sure to leave a great impression."

The young woman pulled her hands away from and gave a tiny smile through her tears.

"You've got a lovely smile, give that to your prospective bosses, hold your head up high, stand tall and take the world. Let me buy your coffee so you have the energy to do just that," David whispered to her, he stopped rubbing her back and grabbed an empty cup, the same size as the one beside the woman and walked up towards the clerk. "Two of these please."

The clerk shook her head and waved, "It's on us Sir."

The woman held her cup of coffee in her hands with a small smile on her face and tears slowly falling down her cheeks. She whispered "Thank you." before leaving the small store.

David filled his cup with coffee that upon first sip he realized was actually quite horrible. Outside the looked towards the sunny sky and whispered, "Lord, please bless that young woman. Help her as you see fit."

A couple a weeks later the young woman picked a number out of cell phones memory and waited for an answer. "Grandma!" she happily cheered.

"Honey? What's going on? What you up to?" the elderly woman asked.

"I did it. I finally got a job here!" She smiled with a couple tears falling down her cheeks.

"That's wonderful dear! You've been working so hard."

"You know. Before the interview I was crying almost uncontrollable and I had no confidence. Then when I was getting a coffee a man gave me some encouragement. He bought my coffee and gave me the courage to give it my best."

"Wow that suddenly makes me think of a young man I met almost 10 years ago. He had gone through so much tragedy so young and all I felt I could do for him was buy him a coffee. It'd be nice if it were the same young man all grown up."

"There's no way grandma, after all, what are the chances a man would move from Mahogany town to Pewter City and just happen to talk to your granddaughter?"

"How many people are in the world?" the elderly woman laughed.

_A/N: This fic actually made me cry a couple times. Not so much that it's extremely sad (The shorts I posted yesterday __Time Line__ and __Forever Friends, Okay__? Actually seemed sadder from a viewer who got to go along with their sorrow so much as the majority of this is real.) When my father was 22 he had lost his mother, his father and his sister all within two years and then he ended up taking care of his sisters children. Apparently shortly before he got my cousins he was trying to buy coffee and he must have just looked so sad that an elderly woman came up and asked him if she could help him. He raised my cousins but shortly before my mother got pregnant with me his two nephews stole a car and crashed it. While they were locked away in juvey I was born. My cousin was more like a big sister to me even though she's 8 years older than me. _

_Not too long ago my father wanted coffee and he didn't have the urge to go to his normal places but visited a place he's never been where he met a a young woman trying to get a job on her 17__th__ interview. He tried to cheer her up and buy her a coffee. He later visited the place again where the clerk recognized him and told him that the woman he cheered up came back and said that was the best interview she's had yet. _

_This story is __**LRGR: Leave a review, get a review**__. Just leave __**LRGR**__ in your review and I'll check you out!_


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